Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to organise a debate at the earliest opportunity on the forestry sector. With the passage of the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 in October last year, we had all hoped it would address the inertia in the issuance of licences, especially for the felling of timber. Unfortunately, that has not happened. With the construction sector pretty much back in full swing, there is a shortage of timber. Licences are not being issued, timber is not being processed and, unfortunately, when there is a hold-up in supply, there is considerable demand and the price goes up. I am being told that since earlier this year the price of timber has gone up by 35%. This is a commodity and the price would normally fluctuate 5% either way, but when we take this into account on top of a housing crisis, and when nearly 35% of our house construction is now timber frame, it is a real crisis. I do not know what is required but we need an urgent debate in the House and we need to thrash out with the appropriate Minister some pathway to ensure that the felling of timber gets under way. There are issues with licencing for roadways, thinnings and plantations, but we are also way under the number of trees that need to be planted. We had a target last year of 8,000 ha to be planted but we planted some 2,500 ha. This is an ongoing issue but it is currently at a crisis point, with no sign of a resolution until such a time as we can get the licences issued, get the timber cut and into the mills to be processed. I am talking with sawmill managers and their agents daily. They tell me that they must dot across the country to try to get scraps of timber just to feed their mills. This is not good enough. It is an important indigenous sector.We need to treat it as such and ensure that the laws and rules allow the industry to operate efficiently, although that is not in any way to take away from the climate change perspective, which recognises that we need to plant many more trees to sequester carbon.